The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill WattersonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another review I just saw (almost totally unrelated ... oh well) reminded me I should give this five stars. I have loved C&H for years. One of my greatest disgusts with generally-sad newspaper comics is that Calvin and Hobbes are not there.
Chronicling the practically endless exploits of fine young Calvin, his stuffed (?!) tiger Hobbes, and occasionally others: Calvin's wartorn parents (especially his fabulously sardonic dad), the ever-sappy neighbourhood kid Susie, and long-suffering teacher Miss Wormwood. I can't properly describe these comics. Seriously, just go try them. Or retry them. Alternately wry, uproariously funny and heartwarming, they will capture the heart of anyone who's ever had – anyone who's ever been a child. Watterson's illustrations and his dialogues are equally brilliant. There is not one strip that won't have you smiling, at the very least. The very stuff to read when you're at all pressed by negative feelings. Laughter is good for the soul, as hereby proven.
However. One minor cautionary note, potential readers:
Calvin is a freaky kid. Damn realistic, though - nicely caricatured but realistic, hence artistic. Did I mention sadistic? (Apologies.) Reminds me of myself, not too far beyond his age. If he'd owned Barbie dolls, he would totally have played out his unconscious fascination with violence and its emotional ramifications through WWIII pseudo-Holocaust Barbie games.
One of my current book-related sorrows is that I left my copy of this collection at home when I came to university. I just had to pick and choose. This is coming back with me next time I travel home, though.
View all my reviews
